Crysknife
A crysknife is a weapon that can only be produced by enchanting a worm tooth. It has a +3 to-hit bonus and does d10 damage against both small and large monsters, making it a nice choice for #twoweaponing. However, if it leaves your possession, it reverts back into a worm tooth (when fixed, this only happens 10% of the time). It can safely be put in a container without reverting, as long as that container remains in your possession. Crysknives count as throwing weapons, so they get a to-hit bonus when thrown. Because of their reversion property, throwing them is typically not a good idea. Slash'EM Slash'EM changes the damage for crysknives to 1d20 against small and 1d30 against large. The Ice Mage, Flame Mage and Necromancer roles can gain Skilled in knife, Healer can gain Expert, and Yeomen can gain Basic. A healer can benefit seriously from the Crysknife, since they have little weapon choice other than darts, but still can achieve expert in knives, this can be the most lethal weapon (see below) for a healer in Slash'EM. Generation :See: Worm tooth Crysknifes are not normally generated, but instead created by the player through enchanting a worm tooth. Average damage calculation NetHack We assume the player has expert skill in knife, which gives a +2 damage bonus. A blessed weapon deals 1d4 extra damage against demons and undead. The worst case scenario is against a non-undead, non-demon monster. The best case scenario is against a undead/demon monster. Further, this damage calculation is based per 3.4.3, and not SLASH'EM. SLASH'EM We assume the player has expert skill in knife, which gives a +2 damage bonus. A blessed weapon deals 1d4 extra damage against demons and undead. The worst case scenario is against a non-undead, non-demon small monster. The best case scenario is against a undead/demon large monster. Because of this increase in damage, the SLASH'EM crysknife compares favorably even to artifacts such as Excalibur. Against large monsters, it actually does more damage than the similarly enchanted Excalibur. Throwing At d10, the highest of any projectile weapon (above even the shuriken and boomerang), it begs to be used as such. However, this usually isn't worth the trouble. Even when a crysknife in question is fixed—throwing is best reserved for sheer desperation or complete and utter stupidity. The simple reason for this is that they do not stack—meaning only one may ever be thrown at a time, and it'll take far more enchant weapon scrolls than is worth that small upgrade. Consider that even 3d3 has a higher average (three unenchanted knives, thrown at once) than the 1d10 of a crysknife. Further, when enchantment is considered, 3d3+21 (average of 27) is far larger than 1d10+7 (average of 9). Furthermore, Your strength modifier makes multi-shot thrown weapons even better. In nethack 3.6, crysknives stack, which changes things significantly (though they still have a chance to become worm teeth when thrown). Mythology The crysknife and the concept of worm teeth are from Frank Herbert's science fiction novel Dune. Encyclopedia entry Category:Weapons